


Three Times the Charm

by littleonevixen



Category: Xiaolin Showdown (Cartoon)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, I Don't Even Know, I Tried, Past Abuse, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Harm, Self-Hatred, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Love, Stupidity, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-06-11 09:47:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19533727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleonevixen/pseuds/littleonevixen
Summary: Jack is having a very hard time in the Conflict. He's considering ending it all. When he's not so alone anymore Jack gets a chance to reveal it all instead. The world has no idea what's coming.





	1. Where My Demons Hide

**Author's Note:**

> Hey I'm back and with a new story you all will love.... Or hate!
> 
> Yeah this fic is entirely self indulgent sooooooooo onward with the story. 
> 
> Quick warning suicide attempt and really really self hating thoughts in this chapter.

It was all too much. Jack was on the verge of a breakdown.

The Conflict was getting to be ridiculous. Well, really the people involved in the Conflict were the problem. The monks wouldn't give him a break, not to heal, not to relax, not to build better robots so that he could stop getting his butt kicked every single day, sometimes twice a day. Yay.

On top of that, he was alone. There was no mentor, no teacher, no friends, no parents, not even someone who wanted to use him; there was no one to help him through this time of hardship. Hell, at this point Wuya's loud intrusive verbally abusive ghost form would be welcome. He was that desperate.

Jack needed a break from the Conflict, from the monks, how to put this nicely? 

Thuggish ways? No. 

Willful bullying? No, no.

Abusive activities? No, no, no!

How had Fung put it when he'd finally gone to complain about the break ins and had gotten a broken arm for his troubles before even laying eyes on the man? Ah, yes.

Overvigilance. 

Fung had promised to speak to them about it and had even set his arm and offered to let him stay and get cared for until he healed. Jack politely refused for many, many reasons, four of which had glared suspiciously as he'd flown away. Anyway, the abuses had continued although the night break ins stopped for awhile which, admittedly, was a nice week. But, that very next week, Jack had felt brave enough to try to sleep through the night. Jack was a fool, a naive fool. Gullible and hopeful all at once, he'd even had the nerve to be surprised when it happened.

There is a popular phrase in the world "the calm comes before the storm". Well, the storm came through his living room. It was scorched, and soaked all at once. There were dent marks on the ceiling and a wall on the floor. The monks had almost looked sheepish when they saw him in the tightly belted robe he'd rushed down in at the first crash, still casted arm cradled against wrapped ribs. Jack had looked at the damage and had ignored the monks monologues as he sighed and rubbed his temple. 

"There is a door for a reason! Use it ok?! It is literally right next to the wall you demolished!" He pointed directing their attention before cutting off his rant midway with a frustrated growl.

"But why am I wasting my breath? Are you done now? Got your stress relief? Good, get out."

With that he turned headed back to bed. On the bright side they'd absolutely incinerated a couple of his least favorite family photos, so there's that. After that he figured if he quit he could dedicate his time to mental health… and physical health… and emotional- you know what just health in general. He'd even tried giving up his Wu, but the monks still came to trash his lab with the excuse of wondering what his plan was. Apparently, they'd "kept track" of the Wu that he supposedly had. Bullshit! They couldn't even keep track of their own damn wu! How the fuck were they claiming to keep track of his?! Jack called immediate bullshit before grabbing anything he could throw at them and launching it as hard as he could, screaming abuse at them all the while. Eventually, though they easily dodged the debris, not a scratch on those God forsaken  _ monsters _ , they'd left muttering about his apparent insanity.

So, he sat in the middle of a trashed lab, absolutely, definitely not holding back tears as he considered using the sharp, metallic remnants to end it all. He heard the door open and close upstairs but ignored the sounds of movement on the main floor, deep in contemplation of the pros and cons of such an action. The biggest pros being, there weren't many who would miss him, and that he’d finally get some rest. He reached one shaking hand towards the jagged metal, he could take the pain, not really but it would totally not last long and then it'd be over. Like really over. A dramatic ending followed by a forever dirt nap. Jack caught his reflection in a large piece of metal close by, he could really, really use a nap, dirt or otherwise. He could totally do this. Totally. Probably. 

"Jacquie! Jacquie?! We're back! Where are you?"

_ Ignore it, you've had this dream before, just grab the metal, good… _

"Jacquie! Come out, come out wherever you are!"

_ Close your eyes. It'll all be over in a second... _

"There you are, Jacquie, why didn't you say anything?"

_ Just one vertical slice, think of all the good you'll do. Everyone will be so happy... _

"What the hell are you doing?!"

_ If you were just gone. _

The metal was snatched from loose fingers and warm, solid arms were wrapped around him in an instant. As he was pulled into an equally warm, soft chest, sobs ripped through his body leaving him trembling. 

"You're not real!" He cried, voice broken and higher than usual. "You're never real, I'm alone..." He was sobbing too hard to say more as a hand gently rubbed his back.

"Damn it! How long has it been since you've slept? You should have called us if it was this bad." A soothing, masculine voice asked comfortingly.

"Can't sleep, someone will come. They always come. It hurts. Always hurts." Both in real life and in the nightmares. "Ruin, ruin everything I touch. Couldn't ruin you too. So you're not here. You can't be here. Not real. All alone."

Twin growls of rage and disbelief filled the room, then came a cold, feminine voice, "Bastards."

Jack struggled to open his eyes heavy with sleep and tears, "I miss you guys," he said to the two blurred hallucinations in a whimper.

"We missed you too sis," a gentle hug and kiss on the cheek. "Now sleep, we're here now, we'll take care of everything."

Jack finally could rest, or rather he was too tired to do anything else as his body gave up the fight to stay awake. Still, with the last of his coherent thoughts, he was hoping that this time it was real, that this time they were home, and that he could shed this stupid disguise. But it was probably a dream just like all the other times. He would wake up tomorrow… alone

broken 

despised 

lonely

like always 

Hopefully this time he at least wouldn't be under attack. He snorted. Now  _ that _ was a fruitless dream. With that thought he drifted into a dreamless sleep.


	2. Where Did I Go Wrong? (I lost a friend)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The two who were almost too late.

Jacqueline Spicer and Jacques Spicer looked around their sister's precious lab. It was trashed. There was shattered glass, broken robots, even a hole in the wall near the entrance, near enough to just use the damn door. The fact that the wall next to the door had been broken was a power move, an insult. They wanted their sweet sister to be afraid and, apparently, it had worked. She was so afraid that it appeared she barely slept!

Whoever had done this to their baby sister had done it multiple times, likely in increasingly violent ways. So often, in fact, that she likely feared even a quick nap. They'd tormented the little angel enough that she had even considered suicide a viable option. Suicide! Jacquie Spicer, their sweet little genius of a sister, would have been gone forever if they hadn't come home today, might have been a cold body on the floor if they had been just an hour later. They each could imagine those lifeless ruby eyes rimmed in tears staring straight ahead at nothing. Bile burned their throats, and chills shook their spines that had nothing to do with the temperature of the basement, of that they were sure.

"How…? Why didn't we feel this?” The eldest sister asked, utterly terrified by her lack of information, “We've always shared each other's feelings, for better or for worse. Why can’t we feel anything from her? We should have felt the start of this spiral." Jacqueline’s long, thick waves of autumn red hair framed spring green eyes set in a tan full face, which was sprinkled with a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. The edges of rather thin red lips tugged down as her eyes shined. She viciously beat back her tears Jacquie had cried enough tears for both of them and more tears weren't what her sister needed. She cradled her sister in her arms wiping her sister's face gently with a handkerchief from her pocket. Tears, and what felt like thick makeup, we're smoothed from the troubled teens face, anxious even in sleep. Jacqueline paused in her wiping. The makeup was odd considering that both sisters absolutely loathe makeup and it didn't seem to be intended to enhance her sister's looks as, Jacqueline could tell, her sister hadn't been out in a while. Makeup was time consuming; the time, effort, and the focus needed to get it right was all mental energy that, both sisters had long ago agreed, could be spent practicing and perfecting their passions instead. For her to decide the time and effort were necessary…. Jacqueline was anxious, and very afraid, about what lay just under her sister's foundation.

"What do you think happened to her?" asked Jacque, having come back with a bowl of warm water to assist in her efforts. She didn't answer him, she continued to slowly and gently clean their sister’s face. Jacque felt her anxiety as he knelt beside his sisters brushing his own darker red hair, worn long and tied back into a braid, behind his shoulder. Which left his matching red eyes unobstructed as he searched their sister's unconscious figure, taking off every piece of jewelry that he found. It wasn't too difficult, she didn't wear many pieces as they mostly got in the way of her work. No rings and a couple of hidden necklaces and bracelets. He removed each piece carefully, cautious both of his sister's fragility and uneasy sleep. The jewelry was set in a neat pile beside him and as he searched, Jacque discovered that he didn't know which pieces were most precious to his sister. Which pieces were marvels of technology, which pieces held an emotional value, and which pieces simply added to her look? He didn't know and that, that hurt just a little more. But now wasn't the time for soul searching, for wondering why one of his most precious people hadn't reached out to him, if not in the beginning, at least when it got bad. Now wasn't the time for questions and anguish. So he pushed his emotions aside, and continued with his careful, meticulous search. Eventually, Jacque came across and gently removed one final bracelet, three silver dragons intertwined in flight, each dragon playful grasping the tail of the dragon ahead in their deadly teeth. As it left her skin Jacque knew he'd found what he was looking for but he didn't have time to brace himself. 

In fact, in would have been impossible for Jacques to brace himself against the onslaught of emotions and pain that flooded through him. He was left trembling on the ground, choking as it blocked his throat with sheer, searing agony. His skin practically sizzled, his lungs burned, his bones felt blackened with char, snapping in twain and barely reforming, again and again. Through it all, with barely any time to heal, to rest, to hide and lick his wounds, he felt abandoned, panicked, worthless, alone, scared, rejected, reviled, anxious, spurned, contemptible, alone, terrified, despised, useless, alone, and so, so, so, so, so lonely and tired that everything simply throbbed with exhaustion.

Jacques shuddered on the ground as he took the pain, the sorrow, the depression, the anxiety and the sheer overwhelming exhaustion. He took it, there was so much, and he carefully forced the feelings to retreat to the back of his mind and allow his own body, his own thoughts and emotions, to finally regain control. Jacques reminded himself that this wasn't his pain. If he took this pain as his own, or rejected it entirely, his sisters' pains would double, so he struggled for control. It took much longer than Jacques wanted, but, finally, he could breathe again. He looked up to see his sister starting to do the same. As she regained her own control, she too looked up to check on him and was relieved that he was alright. The two siblings then shared a feeling of horror and sorrow as they looked at each other with tears of pain, and realization running down their faces.

"Jacques." Jacqueline sobbed, looking in numb shock at his neck, "We're still wearing our dampeners." Her hand went up to a band, also a dragon, that circled her neck and Jacques did the same. The jewelry was made by Jack herself. It made it so that made it so that the triplets, who'd shared nearly every pain, emotional or otherwise, from a young age and whose bond only grew as the years passed, could still feel each other's pain, and so know if there was trouble, but at a lower magnitude. Jacquie had first given it to them when they started training, so that they both wouldn't stagger from a single blow during a fight. It made it so that a broken leg felt like no more than a twinge of pain on the other end and did the equivalent on the emotional scale, a broken heart or enraged rampage was like watching a sad movie or documentary, they felt pain, but they knew it wasn't theirs. 

This meant that the pain they’d felt, their baby sister's pain, the crushing, suffocating, throbbing pain that had reached out and drowned them in darkness, it could only be a fraction of what she’d felt. What she'd been feeling for so long. Their eyes narrowed with molten determination.

"Whoever did this will pay." The eldest sister whispered into the silence around them reaching out and gently stroking the sleeping girl's hair. Her brother’s deathly red eyes glittered darkly in the low lighting of the basement as he murmured his agreement, unable to stop himself from scooping up their small sister and holding her close. They watched silently for a moment as their sister curled tighter in her sleep. They would not fail her again.


	3. Lean On Me

Jacques and Jacqueline made their vow, nothing and no one else would bring their sister harm, but for now the damage was done and they had to deal with the aftermath. Their first priority was to care for their sister. Jacques carried the poor girl upstairs, each jolting step cause their sister to moan or whimper in pain, they could feel as her wounds stung and throbbed. Still she did not wake. As they reached the top of the steps and headed to the bathroom, each step was as slow and careful as possible. They finally reached the bathroom, Jacque carefully set their still unconscious sister on the toilet and left to prepare her room. Jacqueline washed her and cleaned her wounds. Afterwards Jacque came back to help carry the deeply sleeping girl to the bedroom where both siblings helped to bandage her. Throughout this process, they winced in shared pain at each layered bruise, swollen limb, broken bone, cut, and scar but refused to even consider reapplying the bracelet that had separated them from their baby sister. While caring for her, they'd found no part of her body unmarked, their poor, sweet sister had been brutalized.

They had never felt so much rage as when they cleaned off her make up to see that even her face hadn't been spared. The poor girl was near comatose, not once stirring through the whole ordeal, as if she had no energy left to even respond or maybe she was just used to the constant pain. They didn't know which thought enraged them more. 

After cleaning and bandaging her wounds, Jacques and Jacqueline stood guard, determined that their sister would get the rest she needed to heal both her mind and her body. And may God have mercy on whoever made any attempt to disturb her, because they had none. 

“We left so we could learn to protect her, we failed. Who knows how long she's been like this.” Jacqueline refused to cry as she stroked her sister's scarred cheek, she didn't deserve it. “We should have known, we should have suspected, we should have checked on her when we couldn't feel her anymore. Look, look what those monsters did to her, and we let them. We left her all alone.”

Jacques held both of his sisters’ hands, his eyes hard and cold. “We won't fail her again,” he said while stroking the poor girls' calloused hands, “They won't hurt her again.”

  
  


It was nearly three days later when Jack woke up. Her body felt much better and life looked much less depressing. She would give it around two hours before that changed, but for now, she would enjoy the break from her crushing depression and anxiety. It was strange, she actually felt truly rested for once, she hadn’t been awakened by a wu alarm or the threat of imminent bodily harm, just a peaceful rest followed by a slow wake to greet the new day. The kind of morning that had become a really, really rare treat, and Jacquie was grateful that nothing had disturbed her slumber for once. She might even have time for an actual breakfast! With that thought in mind, she headed downstairs, though she didn't remember going up to her room, to get some food from the kitchen with a faint hope that this peace would last. Around halfway down the stairs, she realized that it smelled like something was cooking already, and since she wasn't sick and ordering Jackbots to cook for her, that and almost all of the Jackbots were destroyed in the monks' last raid, that meant someone was home. Maybe, maybe it hadn’t been a dream this time maybe…

"AJ, JC? Are you home?!" Jacquie’s voice echoed down the halls. There was a pause as she rushed down the stairs and rounded the corner. She was met with two sets of loving arms.

"You're awake!"

"We've been so worried!"

"Who did this to you?"

"Why didn't you call us!?" The words nearly overlapped and Jack was too happy to listen until she was pushed away to be examined.

"What the hell have you been doing?! We've only been gone a couple of years and we come back and have to ward the house and heal you up. Not to mention we had to stop you from committing suicide! What the hell was that all about?" Jacquline sounded horrified by the whole ordeal.

It was then that Jack, named Jacquie at birth, finally got to talk. She told her siblings what happened in the years that they had been gone, nearly sobbing in relief as that suffocating loneliness and rejection started slowly slip from her mind. She told them of her meeting with Wuya, of the monks, and of the wu. She explained how her parents sometimes tried to pass her off as Jacques and how the monks assumed she was a guy when they’d seen her in the suit. She explained how if they ever saw her in regular clothes after that, she’d feared that the teasing would have been brutal. She told them of how she'd become the Evil Boy Genius and the crushing depression that had followed. Jacquie held nothing back as she told them of every failure, every success, and just how hard she'd tried every time. She even told them about Chase.

Because her story was so long, the siblings began to trade tales so that her voice could get a break. They laughed and cried, telling of their own adventures as apprentices to those outside the conflict and of how they had heard of it through gossip. Part of the reason they'd decided to return was because of a particular rumor of a certain evil boy genius who sounded too similar to their precious sister for comfort. Plus, they'd really missed her. To come home and find her so close to death was horrifying and they certainly wouldn’t be leaving her alone again any time soon.

"You still should have called us LJ. You know we will always come running." Jacqueline looked like she was about to continue when she noticed how tired her sister still looked, practically swaying on her feet. She sighed. "You look dead on your feet, Come on sit down and eat something, but mark my words we will talk later!" She ushered her sister into a seat at the table and shoved a plate in front of her. "Now eat, you're starving."

"I didn't want to kill myself," Jacquie responded dazedly, tired again after reliving the past two years, "I just needed to sleep. I needed to rest and…." Jaquie blinked and stared at her sister, brain still kind of rebooting. "How did you know I was starving?"

Jacqueline smiled, reaching into her jean pocket and pulling out a silver bracelet. "Well first of all you've been asleep for three days and second, well you get the picture," she swung the bracelet lightly around on her finger. Jaquie gasped checking her wrists for the missing jewelry before trying to grab it from her sister. Jacqueline pulled the trinket out of reach and put it away. "Not until you prove you can be trusted again," she scolded with a playful finger.

Jacquie pouted, "But, but…."

Jacques laughed from behind Jacquie before coming around to face her. She turned her pleading gaze to him. "No, no, no, don't you try the puppy eyes on me. I'm just as upset at how reckless and stupid you were. If it were up to me, I would have broken the thing." Jacqueline stuck her tongue out at him as Jacquie looked at him in horror. Jacques rolled his eyes at them. "Just eat. We worked hard on this you know." He pushed the plate closer as Jaquie glared at them both, until she was too distracted by the delicious meal to maintain it.

"Stupid siblings and their stupid delicious meals." She muttered loudly between bites. Her siblings laughed and she hid her own smile behind another big bite. It was good they were back.

  
  


Days later Jacquie was feeling much better. She and her sister had regular healing sessions that either took the form of her sister checking to make sure that her injuries were healing correctly or shopping for cute colorful outfits that often incorporated black in some way as was Jacquie's preference. The shopping was online but it was fun all the same. 

As her siblings refused for her to pretend to be a guy any longer, and it really wasn't her preference either, her wardrobe was overhauled and refilled with dresses, leggings, and skirts. Even her pants and boots were cuter, though her steel-toed work boots stayed.

With her brother, Jacquie worked on her robots. Her brother was quite good with magical items, (she didn't ask, he didn't tell) almost as good as Jacquie was with robots. So he helped her create robots that could withstand magical attacks and were stronger against physical attacks. Since she had more time, she was also able to make her main force more lightweight and maneuverable. Most of her robots already had an AI chip allowing them to have personalities and emotions to some extent, but now they allowed the robots to adapt to both physical and magical attacks and respond accordingly. She'd never had so much time to work uninterrupted, usually someone came bursting in anger or in need of a favor and destroyed her hard work before she could completely finish. Naturally, she was curious about how her siblings had done it, but she didn't ask until her projects were done. No need to jinx it after all.

The siblings also had time they spent together playing games and yelling at each other while laughing. There were less playful insults than usual in consideration of Jacquie's mental state but they all had fun. The most fun Jacquie's been able to enjoy in a long time.

It took another week before Jacquie was ready to ask the big question on her mind. When Jaquie finally fixed her last project, adding the ability to hover into all of their shoes in case of helipack malfunction, she took a shower got dressed in a newly delivered dress of red and black with a short flowing skirt, long sleeves, and black leggings. She needed as much skin covered as possible or she would burn in the sun and this conversation might lead to everyone heading outside. Finally ready, she joined her siblings on the couch to watch tv. They laughed a bit at the cat and fish on the screen. Jacquie took a deep breath during a commercial and decided to just be blunt.

"So how'd you do it?"

“Hmm?” Was the distracted answer as they cuddled her. Her siblings were extremely affectionate towards her, especially since they’d come home. She rephrased her question.

“How’d you keep anyone from bothering us. I mean it’s been like a week. Usually, I’ve been attacked like three times by now. Yet somehow, we haven’t been bothered once. How’d you do it.”

The smiles they turned on her didn’t do a bit to hide the rage that they were feeling. They were actually scarier than if they had simply frowned. “It’s a secret little sis, we’ll tell you later but for now,” started Jacques focusing his attention on her as he leaned forward to gain her attention, “Why don’t you tell us when you’re going to your next little showdown. We want to pay your little... playmates, a visit.” The smile on his face somehow got more terrifying than before. 

“There is no set time or place, I have a magic detector for when a wu shows up that shows me the place. One more showdown where I don’t get mauled and I could probably fine tune it to show me exactly where the new wu appears so that I don’t have to search like the others. I would have done it already, but it would cause more of them to seek me out to attack me and take the wu from me by force.”

The smile her brother gave grew to manic proportions. 

“Let them try,” her older sister replied. Jacquie turned to see a matching smile on her sister ’s face, she felt an answering one on her own. 

“Well then, my protective siblings, you’re going to have to let magic through whatever shield you put up around the house so that the wu detector can do its job. Even then it still might take a few days so why don't I make something special for our big entrance?”

Jacqueline laughed, "I have the perfect idea!"

As they fine tuned their idea, Jacquie shuddered at the cold rage her siblings tried to hide with banter. The conflict had no idea what was coming to them, but it wasn’t her job to warn them or protect them from the storm that was coming, and it was their turn to be afraid. Jacquie couldn't wait.


End file.
